D8: Steve Jobs on Gizmodo (he won't let it slide) and Flash (nearing death)

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, might make his opinions heard in emails back to customers and 1,600 word manifestos on the Apple homepage, but he doesn't open up for traditional interviews so often.

One place he will make time for, though, is the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference, an annual pow-wow with influential figures in the world of media and technology.

Last seen in 2007's D5 expo, alongside Windows frontman Bill Gates, this time he took to the stage alone to chat about all things Apple.

Here are the highlights

"It's got theft, it's got buying stolen property, it's extortion. I'm sure there's sex in there somewhere".

Even though his company was the laughing stock of the tech world for a while for losing such an important prototype, even Jobs admitted that the Hollywood like saga of Gizmodo and the iPhone 4G was "an amazing story" and "somebody should make a movie out of this". But he won't be taking the directorial role, and he won't let the whole thing go either.

He told his interviewers that he was advised to "let it slide", and that he shouldn't go after a journalist for buying stolen property. But to do so would affect the company's core properties and he'd "rather quit" than let the gadget blog off the hook.

Following Jobs's "Thoughts on Flash" article, posted on Apple's website earlier this year, the CEO explains how Apple looks for technologies that are in their youth (HTML5) rather than those nearing their death (Flash).

The company has a precedent of ditching aged technology in favour of fresh ideas, including swapping serial ports for USB and axing 5-inch floppies for 3.5 inch ones, before nixxing them altogether in favour of CDs.

Jobs says that his blog post was written as a reaction to Adobe trashing Apple in the press, and that with no physical proof of Flash running well on a mobile platform, they're keeping it out. With one iPad sold every three seconds, Jobs thinks people aren't too bothered.

Steve also talked about how Google struck the first blow by coming into the phone market, and Apple isn't trying to do search. The recently acquired Siri is an artificial intelligence application, not a search app.

And he thinks the iPad has the capacity to save journalism, saying it will be instrumental in getting people to pay for quality content. But publishers need to charge less than print. Take that Wired, and your subscription-less iPad app.